Ubuntu 8.10 Has a Brand New Wallpaper

Mark Shuttleworth promised a new and breathtaking theme for the upcoming Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
operating system, but until now we saw a dark and ugly one (NewHuman, also know as DarkRoom) introduced in the first alpha release, which disappeared in Alpha 4 and was replaced by an up-to-date version of the classical Human Murrine theme. Later, in the Beta release, the Hardy Heron wallpaper was finally replaced with a new one... with dots! I mean, come on... what is that? Anyway, Ubuntu 8.10 is getting closer and closer to the final release (October 30th) and there's still no "drastically redesigned" theme for it. Yes, everyone knows that this is not the strong point of the release, and that you can always change the default theme with dozens of other nice ones which can be found here, but I think a new and professional theme will get the Ubuntu OS closer to the land of mature operating systems, such as Mac OS X, and it will have more and more devoted users.

And you know what? It's good to be an Ubuntu tester and see all the progress that the developers make in creating an amazing operating system, and I say this because as of last night (October 10th), they replaced that ugly wallpaper introduced in the beta release with one that really represents the Intrepid Ibex:

Well, this is a good start... don't you think? Mark Shuttleworth stated a month ago that Canonical was looking for a professional themer to create that professional theme everyone expects for the 8.10 release. However, no one knows for sure whether it will be available in time for the final launch. Also, some say that the Ubuntu developers will pick two themes created by the community to accompany the new official theme (if there will be one)!

Among the new features in Ubuntu 8.10 is the glamorous GNOME 2.24 desktop environment, which brings a file manager with tabs, the ability to mount archives, an improved Fast User Switch applet that works in collaboration with Pidgin, a better archive manager that adds support for the ALZ, RZIP, CAB and TAR.7Z file types. Also the "just released" Linux kernel 2.6.27 will be present and as you (probably) already know, it offers out of the box support for many webcams and wireless network devices. Moreover, the GIMP 2.6.1, OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 and Firefox 3.0.3 will also be present in the final release!